With Absolutely No Explanation

This is an orange cardamom olive oil cake - it’s SO good. I made it after the museum because I wanted the house to smell good. Which it did. Yay!

Going to the museum is definitely a different experience now that everyone is so humongous and grown up - but we did manage to see most of it and do all the hands on activities around the museum…including this super rad craft and creativity room in the newly renovated section. Even Paul got involved! Very cool.

Bree smiling like this statue and thoroughly unwilling to show her braces still. 😂

 In other news, I find it a bit wild that almost everyone’s blog drops off at six years ago when social media really took off. I’ve been finding unbelievable value in scrolling through these old posts and I’ve decided that even if nobody ever sees these but me, it’s worth the small effort of documenting our days. 

The BIG MOVE!

So we're buying a house, y'all.

Not a house-house, another town house. It's better constructed than this one, and bigger (by about 10 square feet), with a fence, and woods beyond...there are many things we love about this new-to-us house, not least of which are the very affordable price tag and the fact that, as a townhouse, it should be relatively easy to rent when it's time for us to buy or build our lovely forever home.

Renting is super expensive, and Paul's in the middle of his MBA. I think we need to wait and see where that takes him after he graduates. I, of course, would like to stay here, but we'll see. 

For now, the house. We'll move at the end of May - which means there is no soon end to the craziness of our lives. 

I've got all our personal photos down off the walls and packed away, and I've purged the kitchen, and Katie's room of unnecessary objects. The playroom...ohhh, the playroom is making me sad. It's the best part of this house, and such a wonderful space! I already miss it. =(      Anyway, the playroom is next. We need to cull the toys by at least half, which shouldn't be terribly hard as long as I do it when no child is awake to see the carnage in action.

Speaking of children and carnage, Katie just walked into the room and informed me that her job is to cut her neenoo's (Barbies) hair. While a chunk of her own hair is hanging down off her shoulder. Hm. Not good.

ONLY A WEEK! ALERT THE PRESSES!!!

Snow day aftermath!

I don't even feel bad their gloves don't match. IT'S MARCH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. We can still FIND four gloves, and I'm calling that a win. Man, I'm so glad all that snow has melted and winter is almost over. SO GLAD.

 
I may have already posted these! But Carly and her friend Sam earned their Simple Meals cooking badge during one of our snowy days...they made heart-shaped beignets with sprinkles, granola parfaits, risotto and ham and cheese crepes. They did a great job and we had so much fun!

THEN THE SNOW MELTED, HALLELUJAH!

On the first day over 50 with sunshine I got a bunch of texts asking how excited I was about the non-sucky weather. Actually it was completely gorgeous weather and we loved it, no makeup selfie and all. I love not-winter. Not-winter is my favorite thing on earth.

 

Tell me you don't walk into Target just like this.

I won't believe you, but you can tell me. Haha - in case you can't hear, she's saying "eeeeeverything!" 

Then, my poor sugar baby had some sniffs and a sore bottom on Monday night and she didn't go to sleep until 2am. She wandered around the house asking for snacks, spent some time in my bed watching movies and not enjoying her pretzel snack, she was up and down the stairs crying a few times...it was pretty miserable for all of us. Then at 9:30 the next morning, after emptying the baking drawer she ptfo for juuuuust long enough for me to miss my workout class, then spent the rest of the afternoon....well, look at the picture. Not a happy camper.

 

Much better today, though! Right after dance we dropped Bree off at the mall with MomMom for a sleepover and Katie fell asleep in the car on the way home. She transferred to her bed (UNHEARD OF) and is still asleep....hopefully she'll sleep through and will be a happy chicken in the morning!!!

 

Snow Days!

This is the first week of March and this is what our yard looks like. I'm not sure if I've made my opinion of winter clear or not (that is sarcasm, folks) but it's NOT MY FAVORITE.

Much like Katie's opinion of naptime. She "made magic ice like Elsa" and threw out all her books and the GIANT pile of clothes in her closet intended as hand-me-downs. It was such a huge mess! That kid.

 

Then, later that day, Paul took a class from me - hooray for PiYo and sweet husbands.

Okay, and this brings us current! Yesterday we had snow ALL day long - it snowed for twelve hours! So, no school for us. I had a list of things to do, but my kids had better plans. Every time I was presented with a ticket, I stopped to participate, and even though it made the first five steps of this plan take twelve hours, it was worth every distraction. How many invitations to private air shows do you really get in a lifetime?

 

Later on, Bree had a private library opening. There were no cats or dogs allowed, but there were books, tickets, a sign in sheet, and a puppet show. Pretty cool!

 

 

 

We're home again today because the roads couldn't get plowed in time for school buses.

I am SO ready for spring. This white is lovely, but my word I would kill for a shot of green.

2nd Half of February!

Less than a month since the last post! This is a win!!!

I've put everything from the last two weeks of February up to today (March 3)....it's picture heavy but why not? Pictures are the best part.

 

We saw the circus with Auntie K! It was a GREAT show - totally not the same kind of circus as when we were growing up!

 

I was buying my own Valentine's Day gift. =) 

This is not my preferred mode of receiving 20lb dumbbells, but I got what I wanted, so we'll call it a win. NEXT time, I'd like them to magically appear on Valentine's morning in a gift bag.

The next day, I turned that bag of supplies into THIS awesome Valentine's Day tea party for our Daisies! All the red and pink things! Plus boas and awesome sparkly plastic rings, crowns for the birthday girls, some simple snacks....it was fabulous. =)

 

While I set up the party, the girls learned to hula dance! Bree did a great job and had so much fun. She's such a good little dancer!

 

We spent President's Day getting my oil changed. Fun.

 

We haven't had nearly the amount of snow this year as last year. Overall this winter just seems a lot less dramatic than last year, but that's probably because we're used to it now and it's not as much of a shock. I still hate the frigid days and the wind, and the salt everywhere, and all the sick people coughing on everything, and being cold, and no sun, and no growing things, and no yummy fruits........I'll stop complaining. But still. Winter stinks.

 

Little moment - Katie and Paul in Starbucks on our way to take him to school, and Carly enjoying our new laundry soap. Apparently Kirkland brand from Costco smells AMAZING. =)

 

If you've never played Blokus, you have to! It's SO FUN!!! In this picture, I'm the blue and Paul's trying to figure out a way to keep me out of his yellow territory....he sat there for five straight minutes figuring it out, but I still won. =) 

The next day! World Thinking Day with our Girl Scout friends. So many girls were there learning about the different states of the US....it's such a great event every year. 

Sillies

 

In many ways, Carly is very like her father, but she gets SO INTO her books, and that's all me. She threw her backpack on the trunk and plopped down right inside the front door to get back into Harry Potter. So adorable!

This past weekend was a GREAT one for me! I spent all day Saturday being certified as a PiYo instructor...PiYo is pretty much my favorite thing ever, so I'm excited to be able to do it more often AND get paid. Woohoo! Then the very next day, Carly and I went up to Big Boulder in the Poconos to go skiing. I spent a good part of the day side walking up the mountain to help her put her skis back on after she'd fall, so my behind is a little sore. I spent all day yesterday so exhausted and recovering with tons of water and sitting still. Now today, I'm doing this on a break from catching up on all the housework that I normally do on the weekends, but didn't for some crazy reason, get done while I was gone. It's like everyone says coming back from vacation to a real job, you have so much to catch up on! That's true of a non-real job, too, apparently. =)

 

 

Which brings us to today! Katie's been mad and yelling all day, and I'm going to take a picture each Tuesday to see how our yard is transitioning into the spring. Our house is the one on the right....and if you're thinking it looks SUPER narrow....well, that's because it is. Perfect for us, but very narrow!